“Are you okay?”
I nodded first and then said, “Yeah,” as my nod turned into a slow shake of disbelief. “I can’t believe she came here…”
I couldn’t believe a lot of things right now. That Mrs. McCormick physically showed up to threaten me. That Todd had calledherto check on the baby, not me. Not Max.Her.
“She’s not coming back, Daze. I won’t let her near?—”
“What did you mean ‘our home’?” I interrupted him, my focus playing Whack-A-Mole in my mind.
Max stared at me, his jaw flexing.Hard.
“I don’t think you should stay here anymore,” he said, his voice sinking into that warm grit that coated it back at the hospital when he’d coached me through my blood draw. “I don’t want you staying here alone.”
I knew what he was going to say because I felt the same way. I didn’t want to. I wanted to feel like it would be fine and that Todd’s mom got the message to leave me alone. But people with power rarely understood a message they didn’t agree with, and even less so complied with it. And even though I was pretty confident that I wasn’t in any physical danger, that almost seemed like less of a concern than the other ways the McCormicks could harm me.
Blinking, Max’s stare collected back into focus. “What did you mean ‘our home’?” I repeated because he’d answered the part of the question I hadn’t asked.
Releasing my shoulders, he reached for his collar and popped the top button. I wondered if he even realized he’d done it.
“I mean, I think we should stay at my house for the time being.”
“The one you’re trying to sell.”
“I’ll take it off the market until we don’t need it anymore. It’s not like the offers were rolling in anyway,” he added, trying to play down what he was offering—what he was doing.For me.
“And we’ll stay there…together.” I couldn’t tell if I was asking him or telling him.
It wasn’t bad enough I spent almost every day with the man I was inappropriately attracted to. It wasn’t bad enough that I’dmarriedhim for access to good health insurance for my baby. It wasn’t bad enough he’d come with me to my doctor’s appointment earlier, and every time they’d referred to him as the father, I didn’t correct them because I wished it were true.
Apparently, no, it wasn’t bad enough because now I was going to live in the same house as him—sleepin the same house as him.
“I don’t want you staying there alone, Daze,” he replied, even though I hadn’t meant it as a question.
“I know.” I wrapped my arms over my stomach and admitted, “I don’t want to stay there alone either. It’s just…”I’m afraid to be alone with you.
Max pressed his finger under my chin, and suddenly, he was closer. In that space where we were near enough to feel our breaths ricochet.
“Just what?”
There was a different kind of danger that came with sharing a house with Max Hamilton, but what choice did I have? Whatgoodchoice did I really have?
I swallowed hard. “I just can’t believe this is happening. First, you had to marry me. Now you have to move me into your house?—”
“Don’t,” he cut me off. “I don’t have to do any of those things, Daze. I want to. Please,” he pleaded, his thumb pressing on my chin and a different kind of anger darkening his gaze. “Stop thinking of me the way Todd made you think of him.”
Air speared from my lips. He was right. And I hadn’t even realized I was doing it—treating him as though everything I needed from him was an inconvenience.As though I were an inconvenience.
“I’m not him, Daze,” he murmured, and I felt like a jerk. Max and Todd couldn’t be more different. Not in who they were, not in how they made me feel.
Max moved closer, his face lowering to mine, and then we were back in that moment—the one where he stood outside the truck in the rain, ready to kiss me.
“I know,” I murmured, my lips parting and my head tipping just a little farther into the path of his.
His eyes scoured my face. Every lash and every line. Every freckle and blush of color. All of it confessing how much I wanted to kiss him right now. And then he was gone.
My shoulders felt the empty chill first when his hands slid free, and then my lungs unspooled the energy crackling inside them. “The house has four bedrooms, Daze. So I’ll just be there…in case. Nothing else needs to change.”
Needs to…but what if I wanted it to?
